The first World Trade Center Bombing was but the first of a series of terrorist provocations that failed to sober up the Boy President. There were also the attacks on the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, the American embassies in Africa, and the USS Cole. Nor did he do much to enforce U.N. sanctions against Saddam.
Foreign policy and American national security are the most important issues in Campaign 2004. Since Sept. 11, 2001, they have been the most important issues in the country. A former draft dodger and a Vietnam War resister are not very compelling figures in debating those issues. There are numerous reasons why Kerry, though starting with a large base in the Democratic Party, has not been able to move ahead in this race. But the fundamental reason is that he is oblivious to the concern his fellow Americans have about terror and national security. Kerry is a fantasist, aloof in a narcissistic cloud. The American people perceive that there is something wrong with him.
At some point, Democratic leaders are going to have to ask themselves how they get stuck year after year with such improbable presidential candidates. In 1992, they had a draft dodger with more skeletons in his closet than a grave robber. In 2000, they had another of their fantasists who could not beat a little-known Republican governor despite his administration's claims to peace and prosperity.
This time around, they have a candidate who is so lacking in judgment as to have based much of his campaign on his behavior of 35 years ago, behavior that he should have recognized as at best controversial. How could Kerry have been so clueless as to have thought that veterans and other advocates of strong defense would elect him in time of war? Nothing in his record reveals him as a strong leader. In fact, he was a mere also-ran until Howard Dean self-destructed.
The Democratic opponent slipping behind in the polls today is neither a George McGovern from 1972 nor a John F. Kennedy fighting the Cold War. He is at one with the Draft Dodger of 1992, though without the charm.